Paddle children and staff, celebrating and continuing to explore, learn and have fun in our beautiful school environment.

Plants

Year 2 have been learning all about plants. We planted runner beans and sunflowers and are looking forward to observing them grow. We also acted out the life cycle of a sunflower. Everyone particularly enjoyed getting sprayed with water that represented the rain!

Year 3 and 5 Working Together to Create Tree Spirits

Year 3 and 5 shared a magical, Inuit story about the 'One who lives within the earth', which reflects upon the interdependence of life on this planet and how to treat our world gently and with respect. The Inuit story explains how the Inuits believe in all living things having a spirit deep inside.

After listening to the story the children worked collaboratively to create their own tree spirits. The pictures show their enjoyment, awe and wonder and final creations.

Willow Dragon flies

Phil Bradley, local basket maker and willow artist, came into school to show the Year 5 children how to make willow dragonflies. This was part of their project looking at the life cycles of insects and exploration of the habitats within our school grounds.

Each child had the opportunity to develop their weaving skills and produce a willow dragonfly. The Year 5 children and some parents and members of staff achieved so much, and the children feel very proud of themselves.

Year 5 in the Beautiful Outdoors

Year 5 have had a day of wetness and wonder, looking at the insects and invertebrates in our school pond. We have been looking at insect life cycles, complete and incomplete metamorphosis and adaptation of freshwater animals. We have combined the outdoors, Science, Art and Computing to enhance our learning. We have all learned so much and had such fun.

Niamh and Nyah carefully observed the movement of the pond creatures, and decided to use these movements to choreograph a dance. Many of us joined in, including Miss Lawler. Video footage to be added soon. Watch this space.

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Year 6 Cycling to Ennerdale.

What an adventure!

The children were so excited, as they prepared to set off on their cycle ride to Ennerdale, even though the weather was incredibly wet. Some Year 5's took these super photographs of the Year 6 pupils and staff setting off.

Outdoor Learning with Year 2.

Fatou's feast and rain dancing

Today we had our own feast like Fatou's family did at the end of our story. The children tried tomatoes, mango, tapalapa bread and spicy rice (Uncle Ben's finest as Miss Hillier isn't the best chef!) Sadly, we didn't get the sunny weather like in The Gambia but we still went outside to enjoy our food like Fatou's family did in the story. We also washed our hands and tried eating with our right hand like they did too! We then listened to a story set in another part of Africa called Lila and the Secret of Rain. We enjoyed this story so much and noticed the big, grey clouds in the sky so we created our own dances to celebrate the rain coming! Some of the boys did a Haka dance and we had lots of singing and cartwheels from the girls!

Year 2 only managed to get outside for a little while today as the rain decided to try to spoil our plans!

We estimated the height of trees by counting the steps until we could see a tree through our legs. We also measured the circumferences of tree trunks and are going to divide these by 2.5 to calculate an estimate for the ages of the trees.

We had so much fun today!

We started the day by making our own grammar game to identify word classes and practise our aiming and throwing skills.

Next, we acted out 'Fatou Fetch The Water' and did a brilliant job. We now know the story really well and have learned about The Gambia, where the story is set.

We also used natural materials (and plasticine!) to help us to remember the properties of 2D and 3D shapes.

Year 3 and Year 6 - Outdoor Learning

Year 6 made some field guides to support Year 3 with their Geography learning. We spent all morning working in the school grounds, near the pond, in the meadow and around the amphitheatre using the guides. This allowed us to look at the nature that surrounds our school. We had a great time working with Year 6. Thank you for teaching us. Unfortunately the weather was not kind to us but the children didn't seem to mind.

Year 4 - Outdoor Maths

Year 5 - Observing Patterns in Nature

Year 5 - Using photography to explore our outdoor environment.

Working in small groups, the Year 5 children were each given a theme (flowers, leaves, trees, rocks, the sky, the landscape or visitors) and an IPAD and asked to interpret their theme using photography as their medium.

As always, the children rose to the challenge: using photographic filters and editing tools they have produced some beautiful pieces of art. We hope that you enjoy looking at the children's finished pieces in our outdoor gallery.

Capturing the images:

Our Outdoor Gallery:

Year 5 - Roving Reporters!

Armed with questions, the Year 5 children used the audio program: Audacity to record radio interviews - the outside noises added to the authenticity of their finished pieces.

The children used the scripts and the questions that they had compiled in the morning to interview the main character of Zoe (from the class text Floodland) and were desperate to find out her plans for the future.

'The distinctiveness and effectiveness of Eaglesfield Paddle as a Church of England school is outstanding...RE makes an excellent contribution to pupils’ understanding of diversity, both within Christianity and between different faiths and cultures...the impact of the school’s Christian character on spiritual development is outstanding,' - Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS), October 2017